The Hills

I slept through breakfast this morning because I felt the little extra sleep might do me some good, plus the morning breakfast here in this hostel isn't complementary. You have to pay 3 euro for the breakfast buffet. I decided, as long as I'm paying for it, I'd rather pick something up on the street that's a little more quality.

I still had to get up before 10, however, because that's when check out time was, and I still had to take a shower (which is extremely important since I'll be traveling all night long tonight). I took a very quick shower, which was unfortunate because I discovered that this was one of the few hostels with a decent shower situation. I would have liked to sit there a while and soak up the nice hot water from the shower head which actually dispensed water at a normal volume, rather than just trickling out or shooting it at you like riot control. I got myself ready for the day, and then hurried down stairs to check out. I had to pack up my backpack and pull it out of the because I needed to hand back my key. However, because my train wasn't leaving till after midnight, they let me store my stuff in their luggage room for the day at no extra charge.

So now I went out to explore again, stopping by the open food market to pick up some breakfast. I bought a chocolate covered banana on some kind of breading which was delicious. Not exactly the most wholesome breakfast, but when I saw it I had to have it, because it just looked like something you should buy in Salzburg. I also picked up some water because I knew I'd need it for my hike today. I'd decided that I was going to go check out the hills outside the main city, and sit out on the grass for a while. There were hiking trails all over the hills, which I could see on my map, so I planned to just wander around in the forest and grassy fields for the majority of the day.

The hills themselves looked a whole lot closer from inside the city. Once I got walking, it took me about an hour and a half just to reach them. However, I got to walk through some of the surrounding suburbs which are beautiful. The sun was out and shining. There wasn't a cloud in the sky today, and the weather was mild enough to where I didn't even need my jacket for most of the time. The Alps were leaping out of the horizon, bright white. They jumped as if making sure you noticed them at all times. The people I past by were all as friendly as I've ever known people to be. They smiled at me, and said hello as they walked by. I followed the road in the direction of one of the walking trails which took me right through a giant field bursting with little yellow and white flowers growing all over. Through the middle was a little creek running along a very old wooden fence. It was like something out of a dream, or movie. I didn't expect this place to look exactly like it does in the movies, but it definitely does, and looks even more wonderful in person.

The trail lead me up to a forest which throughout it had more open fields which poked holes in the wooded ceiling to let the beautiful white light in. Some places I passed by looked so much like pictures I'd seen of battle fields in WW2, and I'm sure used to be just that. I climbed up higher in to denser forest, often straying from the main path to find smaller, lesser traveled paths. Eventually I got myself lost and disoriented from where I knew I was. I still followed the path, so I knew that eventually it'd spit me out somewhere, so I wasn't at all worried, in fact I was utterly thrilled to be wandering through unfamiliar forests. I found several places with breathtaking views of the city, and of the Alps, still shining clearly in the distance. I got another email from Jordan, sharing his thoughts about my views on evangelism, and I had time to just sit in solitude for a while on top of this beautiful mountain overlooking the Alps, and meditate on that question. His words, as they usually do, stirred up conversation inside me, and I wrote him back a long email regarding everything I thought about. It's wonderful to be able to sit in thought, staring at God's beautiful creation and philosophize about the way the world works. If you ever have the opportunity to just get yourself lost in the wilderness for a day, I highly recommend it, especially if it's somewhere like this. Hours went by, and I trudged on through dense trees, thick mud, and tall grass. Over bridges and streams (which I had to cross by means of balancing over a fallen tree), and past waterfalls cascading over perfectly chiseled cliff faces. I finally found a place to where the trail opened up into another giant field of tall grass and flowers. It looked exactly like the field in The Sound of Music, with an amazing view of the mountains just over the tops of the trees. I found myself starting to hum songs from The Sound of Music, but people walking by began to chuckle as they heard me, so I stopped (but secretly began again after they left). I walked into the center of it, and laid down in the tall grass. I rested there for another hour, watching people walk by on the paths on either side of the field, while children played with their dogs in the tall grass. I wished I could stay there forever, but I decided eventually it was time to find my way back.

I had a little bit of a hard time finding a way back to the main road, because I'd gotten myself so well lost in the forest. However, eventually I did find the main road, and walked back into the city and met up with Chris at the hostel.

He went out shopping with me for refills on my toiletries, showing me the places I could buy things like that in Europe. Then we went out to dinner. We first tried this place he was raving about which you have to take an elevator to, because it's right at the top of the mountain between The Castle, and an old medieval monastery. The restaurant over looks the whole city, and we got there right at six, when all the bell towers in all the city rang in the end of the day all at once. Unfortunately the restaurant was closed. Everything closes insanely early here, and apparently we had just missed it. However, we did sit outside on the railing overlooking the city, watched the sun begin to set, and talked travel stories. After a while we both started getting hungry, so we got back down to the bottom of the mountain and ate at an Italian restaurant near the lift. After dinner, we walked back to the hostel and sat for hours and talked about everything from books to politics. He recommended this author named Emilio Eco, who apparently writes these amazing mystery novels unlike any other he's ever read before. A lot of what he told me about them sounds really interesting, so I'll be looking for something written by him if I pass by a book store with books written in English. We talked politics, and philosophized everything in the world from human behavior to wold events. Our conversations gathered crowds around us who wanted to listen to what we had to say. Chris has an amazing perspective on the world, and brought to light some things I'd never even thought about before. I mostly just played the devils advocate, trying to come up with loopholes and reasons why his ideas couldn't work. However, I found myself, nearly everytime unable to combat his ideas, and instead simply shaped them with ideas of my own. Together within the span of about 3 and a half hours, we solved all the worlds problems. We joked about the fact that we just have to figure out now how to convince everyone else. At about midnight, I said goodbye to Chris, and went off to catch my train.

I boarded my train at around 12:45, and had a hell of a time trying to find my seat which had been reserved. I'd never had a reservation on a train before, I'd always (because of my Eurail pass) just found an empty seat, and sat down. However this was much more strenuous. I ended up walking down 5 cars in the wrong direction, and had to make my way back through tiny isles packed with people, until I finally found my spot. To my surpass, the ticket I booked was for a sleeping car. I'd told the woman at the counter when I made my reservation to book me in the six person compartment car, and not the sleeping car because it was more expensive. However, once I got in there, it was nice to be able to stretch out and get a good night's sleep, so maybe it was a blessing after all.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T